Despite brimming coffers, cash-rich BCCI owes the Income Tax (I-T) Department arrears of a whopping Rs 550 crore for 2006 to 2011. In fact, the arrears could witness a steep increase, given fact that the I-T Department is yet to make an assessment for 2011-12 — when India hosted the World Cup — and 2012-13.
The powerful cricket controller failed to pay its dues even though it registered a huge income of over Rs 4,000 crore till March 2011. The revelations surfaced in response to an RTI query by activist Subhash Agrawal to the Income Tax Department. In fact, the department, which had earlier rejected RTI queries on BCCI, was compelled to provide the details of arrears after the directive of the Central Information Commission (CIC). The reply shows that in 2006-07, the BCCI remitted only Rs 26.77 crore, against the demand for Rs 222.93 crore. During this period, the BCCI’s income was more than Rs 866 crore.
The I-T Department said its demand of payment of arrears of Rs 550 crore is still under “first appeal,” made by the BCCI. In 2007- 08, the dues were Rs 42 crore; in 2008- 09, it stood at Rs 74.32 crore and in the following year, the pending amount was Rs 74.32 crore. In 2010- 11, the I-T Department made a tax demand of Rs 337 crore, but could actually collect Rs 170 crore, leaving Rs 167.11 crore in dues. The highest tax demand raised by the department was for Rs 413 crore for 2009-10, when income generated by the BCCI surged to Rs 964 crore. Nonetheless, the BCCI only paid Rs 307 crore, creating arrears of Rs 71 crore.
The BCCI’s highest revenue generation is expected to be in the un-assessed 2011, as India had hosted World Cup then. “It is indeed regretting and surprising that huge amount of Rs 196 crore is pending to be recovered in respect of assessment-year 2006-07. The Income Tax Department should also give data of tax arrears against BCCI prior to assessment year 2006-07. The Income Tax Department should initiate an enquiry to fix responsibility on its erring personnel who left assessment proceedings pending against BCCI for too long, and those who failed to take suitable action against BCCI for recovery of such huge tax-dues.
“The Income Tax Department should put on website list of tax defaulters mentioning amount of tax to be recovered to reduce tax arrears. Civic bodies in Delhi displays names of property tax defaulters prominently on road crossings to shame those not caring to pay taxes voluntarily,” said Aggarwal, who is also crusading to bring BCCI under RTI purview for the past five years. The BCCI has also been resisting the Sports Ministry’s moves to bring it under the RTI purview.